Recruitment Drive
by WoodenStarfish
Summary: The year is 1998, and a certain calamity is about to cause a surge in membership for the SSS. One school's disaster is a battlefront's opportunity. Just a funny "what if" scenario I wanted to put into writing. Enjoy.


Late one night, on the rooftop of a seemingly ordinary Japanese high school, many students stood scattered and confused. "Where are we? This isn't Yomiyama North Junior High," said a girl with reddish brown twintails. She was named Izumi Akazawa, and sure enough, this was not the school the band of middle schoolers had grown up in. Nearby, a purple haired girl named Yuri "Yurippe" Nakamura and a brown haired boy named Yuzuru Otonashi observed the newcomers.

"Otanashi, mark this down in our calendar," said Yuri.

"Why?" replied Yuzuru.

"Because I want to remember when we had THE BEST RECRUITMENT DAY IN YEARS!" the girl squealed enthusiastically.

"Yurippe, that just means something horrible killed a bunch of children and sent their souls here. Poor kids don't even look old enough to be freshmen."

Yuri blushed with embarrassment, having forgotten the tragedy that sent so many students to purgatory in her excitement at the prospect of recruiting more members. "Of course, you're right Otanashi. You always were the thoughtful member of the team. But look at it this way, these kids will give the battlefront the strength we need to finally win!"

"Sigh. Maybe just let me lead. These kids will probably feel confused and lost, like I did when you recruited me. Let me settle them in," suggested the boy, to which the girl agreed.

Meanwhile, the new arrivals were adjusting to their new environment and reconnecting with each other. One boy in glasses named Tomohiko Kazami was especially happy to see a familiar face. "Yukari!" Tomohiko called before running over to a girl in glasses and short brown hair. "Oh my God, you're alive," he cried, hugging the girl as tears streamed down his cheeks. "I thought you were gone, and I'd never see you again!" Yukari's face turned red as she awkwardly returned the hug. "It's. . . good to see you too, Tomohiko. But what are we doing here? The last thing I remember was hearing about my mom, and falling downstairs, and the umbrella. . . oh God, the umbrella," Yukari whispered, remembering hearing the news of her mother's death before experiencing her own.

"YOU!" screamed a feminine voice from a distance. Yukari and Tomohiko broke their embrace to see their classmate Aki fuming as she marched up to the boy. "You bastard! You killed Kyouko! Then you stabbed me!"

"Now, now, let's think about this logically. We needed to kill the ghost in our class so the calamity would stop. I was just trying to save everyone. It wasn't personal," the boy said, backing up. Unfortunately, Tomohiko had forgotten that the girl he loved was standing next to him and could hear his confession.

"Tomohiko, you killed our classmates?" Yukari said, clearly appalled.

Tomohiko spun around and tried to defend himself. "Yukari, if we had taken out the 'extra' student before, you wouldn't have died. I did it to avenge you!"

"Don't! Don't you dare put your murders on my conscience! Don't you dare!" Yukari said, tears forming in her brown eyes.

Before Tomohiko could respond, a hysterical Aki tackled him and unleashed a flurry of punches on his face. The rest of the group began remembering their deaths, and either panicked or fought with each other.

"Everyone, STOP!" yelled Yuzuru. For a moment, everyone did. "I know you're all feeling scared, but let me explain. My name is Otonashi Yuzuru. Right now, you're all in the afterlife, or at least the limbo before the afterlife." A long silence followed as the middle schoolers processed what they had just heard.

Yuri stepped out, dragging a crate behind her. "My name is Nakamura Yuri. I'm commander of the Afterlife Battlefront, or SSS. We're all here because our lives were unfairly cut short in our youth by God. The battlefront's goal is to rebel against whatever plan God made for this limbo. We do it with weapons like these," Yuri explained, proudly showing the SSS's large arsenal of various firearms, explosives, and blades.

"Uh, Commander, I'm not sure we should be arming them so soon," Yuzuru objected, only for Aki to run over and grab the nearest pistol. Before anyone could intervene, Aki emptied her clip into Tomohiko's face. The rest of the class stood stunned as Yuzuru ran and pulled the gun from Aki's hand. "Die you monster!" Aki screamed, breaking down into sobs. "Everyone, remain calm. You can't really die in purgatory. He'll be fine by morning."

Yuri stepped forward. "Clearly you all have some issues with your past lives you need to sort out, but the battlefront needs you. If we can't put up a resistance, this limbo will annihilate all of us. You're not each other's enemies now. Your only enemy from now on this that albino, robotic looking bitch down there," Yuri explained, pointing to the ground where a pale girl with silver hair and gold eyes stood, staring into nothing. "That's Angel. At least that's what we call her. We believe she is God's angel sent to force our souls to rest. We defeat her, we win."

Aki stopped her crying and gave a curious look to Yuri. "So, we kill this angel, and we go back home?"

"Well, maybe. To be honest, I'm not sure what will happen when. . ."

Before Yuri could finish, Aki grabbed a long dagger from the weapons crate, jumped off the roof, and charged at Angel. "BANZAI!" cried Aki as she prepared to deliver the killing blow. Before the blade could make contact, Angel calmly said "distortion," and an energy field appeared around the silver haired girl, knocking the knife from Aki's grip. "Hand sonic version one," said Angel, and her right hand turned into a longsword. Without hesitation, Angel impaled Aki on her weapon. The middle schoolers gasp as they watch their small friend bleed out in front of the stoic girl. Yuri facepalmed as Yuzuru muttered, "Clearly, we have some work to do."


End file.
